What would benefit Veterans more, GI Bill or 75k for housing?

Sgt Jordan Foster - I am a registered nurse and paramedic on active duty, so I do not employ anyone nor do I do a payroll. A person making minimum wage will take no more than ten years to make $75K and even using the GI Bill for a technical field will pay out more over a lifetime than $75. You are losing thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars if $75K was all you got and it went towards a house.

Ok but do you think that it should come with that as an option for people that do not want to use the gi bill?

Sgt Jordan Foster - No, to many will take the easy way out, not improve themselves, and then be left with very little.

MAJ Byron Oyler - I used what I was able to for education, but in the 80's, it was not enough to get a degree.

Now, due to the schooling I received in the Marine Corps, I am making just as much, if not more, than many of the people I work with who have masters degrees.

Let it be the choice of the person who served. If I had been provided finances to help purchase a home, I could have had my own home, and not paid rent, for the next 3 decades.

Once you have your own home, everything changes and when a typical home in some areas can be purchased for around 100k, that gives you a lot of freedom in choosing you job.

And that 75k that a person on minimum wage will earn, will all be spent just trying to feed yourself.

My daughter, as an example, is making $13 an hour. Her husband is making minimum wage. Together they make about $43k a year. But, neither of them is working in their field of education. My daughter studied psychology, her husband education. She is working in a bank, he is a waiter. They cannot get a house because they don't make enough, even though it would cut there monthly expenses by 2-300!

A degree is great, only if you can use it.

1SG Walter Craig - I am not complaining, I trying to point out that the GI Bill is worth more than $75K with lifelong income based off education.

Goes without saying making 95k a year from my fulltime job. Plus, another 30-40k from my business, which I opened during my time in school and the materials and resources and skills, helped me make it a reality. What I’m saying is that yes, a 75K lump some for people who have the knowledge and the ability to multiply that is a no brainer, but what about the 94% percent who don’t even know how to manage money in general. EDUCATION, while it seems crazy to many, is a means to a higher earning curve. MAJ Byron Oyler

MAJ Byron Oyler - I genuinely applaud your success. However, your way isn’t the only way. There are folks that have used every nickel of their GI bill/Voc rehab, and still didn’t manage to get a degree or job.

By nature, I’m a private person and generally prefer not to discuss many personal details. However, I know several folks that have turned investments, smaller than $75k, into more than $170 in less than a decade.

You wrote, “Most cities $75K gets you a 2-3 bedroom in a poor neighborhood, not optimal for a family.” Yet, in some towns, $75k gets you a nice home.
Additionally, do you realize that while low 6 figure income and $170k in bonuses over 9 years is excellent, in some cities, it might only get you a 2-3 bedroom apartment in a poor neighborhood?
Location location location...

Don’t get me wrong, I’m as big a proponent of education as anyone. However, instead of deriding this kids idea as a new form of social services and welfare, why not think of it as an expansion of the VA home loan benefit; an earned benefit for military service.

But the reality is a lot of veterans don’t use the GI bill, for a variety of reasons. I don’t think it’s an unfair question to see if there’s a way for service members to have a comparable benefit, if they don’t use the GI bill.

1SG Walter Craig - you wrote, “That is true, but in my day there was no internet. The closest library where I grew up was 28 miles away”.

Absolutely, understandable. And while I understand that 28 miles was nearly an insurmountable journey in the days before the internet, I therefore shutter to think of how far you must have had to travel to go to college.

Good morning 1SG. After reading your post and comments this seems like it would of been at least an option that you could of benefited from. This post isn’t designed for retired military members or veterans that are able to go to school there is a reason why generals are who they are and there is also a reason why 1Lts get out. CEO’s and janitors. Needless to say a janitor cannot focus on what is ahead of him with worries about where his family would live if he dies peoples priorities and circumstances are completely different. Education is Priceless! But so is being one percent of this country and being able to say that is the reason why you were able to pass down a home either way you spin it its because of the same reasoning. We now have a forever GI Bill and there are veterans paying rent on forced retirement through the VA at 3500 a month and receiving social security at 28 years old not able to work because of medical reasons so what good would a degree do them in this situation? 1SG Walter Craig